This is the heartwarming moment a baby sloth is reunited with its mum after accidentally falling out of her arms.
Rescuers found the distressed baby crying on a beach in Costa Rica after tumbling from a tree.
Unsure of where her child was, the mother had started climbing up a tree into the canopy above.
Staff from the Jaguar Rescue Center rushed the sloth over to a vet for a check-up, and after confirming it was fit and healthy, they hatched a plan to return it to its mum.
Rescuers recorded the baby’s cries and played it near the tree that the mother had climbed up.
Sure enough, it grabbed the mum’s attention, and she made her way back down to find her baby.
Video footage from May shows rescuers carefully passing the little sloth back into the mother’s arms.
The reunion on Playa Chiquita has since gone viral and has amassed tens of thousands of views on social media.
In a post, the rescue centre wrote: ‘We are happy to announce that we were able to reunite this mother and baby 3-fingered sloths (Bradypus variegatus).
‘We recorded the cry of the baby and played it near the tree to get the mom’s attention, we waited patiently until the mom came down for the baby.
‘The JRC created this method a few years ago, we use it every time to be able to reunite mom and baby sloths.’
Rescuers added: ‘It melts our hearts every time we can witness the reunion of a mom and her baby.’
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